Cicuye (Pecos)
This time we had to use our imaginations.
Unlike Taos Pueblo where adobe apartment complexes still exist as fully functioning homes, or Mesa Verde where the rocky cliffs preserve the dwelling spaces of the Anasazi, or even Chaco where you can wander in excavated stone ruins that clearly outline where the buildings were, Pecos Pueblo no longer exists.
The four story adobe city structure that enclosed an open plaza is gone now. These grassy rolling mounds are not natural hillocks, they are the rubble remains of collapsed adobe walls.
You have to use your imagination. These disappeared walls once formed a square of four and five story apartments completely enclosing a central plaza. It was built on a narrow mesilla, a small rise within a beautiful valley near the Pecos river.
When the Spanish arrived in 1541 there were 2,000 people living here in a vibrant trading community. It was called Cicuye. When pueblo villages all over the southwest were being abandoned pre-conquest in the 1200s due to drought or other unknown pressures, Cicuye thrived.
It was a gateway city, located at a pass where the mountains transition to the open plains to the east, and where rivers, creeks and springs were constant. The Cicuye people farmed and hunted, but they really succeeded as savvy traders. The plains Indian tribes came through with buffalo hides, flint and slaves; the Pecos people traded them crop foods, textiles and turquoise.
With so many material goods flowing through the pueblo, warfare was common. The Pecos people were famous as powerful warriors. They controlled the narrow pass between plains and mountain.
But then the Spanish. You know that story and because it is well documented it forms the bulk of the history of Cicuye and it did not go well.
They arrived in 1541. They built and rebuilt four separate churches at different times that either fell to the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 or became ruins and were built again. They were persistent over 300 years. There were souls to be saved.
In the end, of course, the thriving trading city of Cicuye was decimated. It was on the Santa Fe Trail -- right on it, not a side journey to go visit, but a stop on the trail itself where the trail threaded the entrance into the mountains on the way west to Santa Fe.
But even with that prime location, disease and war and European pressure collapsed the society, and in 1837 the remaining survivors, all 20 of them, walked out to go live with another pueblo miles away. The once powerful, rich, populated trade site was abandoned and the soft adobe buildings quickly collapsed into the earth as well.
Greer Garson (the actress) bought ranch land with her husband that included the property, and it was later donated to the Park Service.
Conflict and war and forced spiritual conversions and revolts and diseases and dispossession -- this was a place of great disturbance over hundreds of years. But you have to imagine all of it. On the day we visited it was beautiful and even serene.
It's 25 miles from our house, barely a half hour drive. We had a burrito and bean lunch in the little town of Pecos.
And although we normally have some distressing accidents / scary adventures / weather anomalies on our road trips throughout New Mexico -- well, this time nothing adverse happened. At least to us, anyway. All the conflict and genocide and drought and conquest happened here, though. But not to us, not on this day.
Unlike Taos Pueblo where adobe apartment complexes still exist as fully functioning homes, or Mesa Verde where the rocky cliffs preserve the dwelling spaces of the Anasazi, or even Chaco where you can wander in excavated stone ruins that clearly outline where the buildings were, Pecos Pueblo no longer exists.
The four story adobe city structure that enclosed an open plaza is gone now. These grassy rolling mounds are not natural hillocks, they are the rubble remains of collapsed adobe walls.
 |
| Grass covered rubble remains of walls |
You have to use your imagination. These disappeared walls once formed a square of four and five story apartments completely enclosing a central plaza. It was built on a narrow mesilla, a small rise within a beautiful valley near the Pecos river.
 |
| What the city looked like |
When the Spanish arrived in 1541 there were 2,000 people living here in a vibrant trading community. It was called Cicuye. When pueblo villages all over the southwest were being abandoned pre-conquest in the 1200s due to drought or other unknown pressures, Cicuye thrived.
It was a gateway city, located at a pass where the mountains transition to the open plains to the east, and where rivers, creeks and springs were constant. The Cicuye people farmed and hunted, but they really succeeded as savvy traders. The plains Indian tribes came through with buffalo hides, flint and slaves; the Pecos people traded them crop foods, textiles and turquoise.
With so many material goods flowing through the pueblo, warfare was common. The Pecos people were famous as powerful warriors. They controlled the narrow pass between plains and mountain.
 |
| Jim contemplating descending into one of the round underground ceremonial kivas which have been preserved. He couldn't figure out how to get down the ladder with his cane. |
But then the Spanish. You know that story and because it is well documented it forms the bulk of the history of Cicuye and it did not go well.
 |
| Partial remains of one of the earlier Spanish churches and convent. |
They arrived in 1541. They built and rebuilt four separate churches at different times that either fell to the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 or became ruins and were built again. They were persistent over 300 years. There were souls to be saved.
In the end, of course, the thriving trading city of Cicuye was decimated. It was on the Santa Fe Trail -- right on it, not a side journey to go visit, but a stop on the trail itself where the trail threaded the entrance into the mountains on the way west to Santa Fe.
But even with that prime location, disease and war and European pressure collapsed the society, and in 1837 the remaining survivors, all 20 of them, walked out to go live with another pueblo miles away. The once powerful, rich, populated trade site was abandoned and the soft adobe buildings quickly collapsed into the earth as well.
Greer Garson (the actress) bought ranch land with her husband that included the property, and it was later donated to the Park Service.
 |
| Standing in what had been the plaza square, this was the beautiful view. |
Conflict and war and forced spiritual conversions and revolts and diseases and dispossession -- this was a place of great disturbance over hundreds of years. But you have to imagine all of it. On the day we visited it was beautiful and even serene.
It's 25 miles from our house, barely a half hour drive. We had a burrito and bean lunch in the little town of Pecos.
 |
| Our lunch spot |
And although we normally have some distressing accidents / scary adventures / weather anomalies on our road trips throughout New Mexico -- well, this time nothing adverse happened. At least to us, anyway. All the conflict and genocide and drought and conquest happened here, though. But not to us, not on this day.
Comments